Monday, 24 October 2011

The UK mainland's first fully intact Viking boat burial site has been discovered
by archaeologists working in the Scottish Highlands. The 5m-long grave contained
the remains of a high status Viking, who was buried with an axe, a sword with a
beautifully decorated hilt, a spear, shield boss and bronze ring-pin.

The Viking had been buried in a ship, whose 200 or so metal rivets were also
found by the team.

The 1,000-year-old find, on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula, was made by
the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project (ATP) which is a team led by experts from
the Universities of Manchester, Leicester, CFA Archaeology Ltd and Archaeology
Scotland

Sunday, 23 October 2011

The Oxford Experience is a
residential summer school held at the college of Christ Church, University of
Oxford.

The programme consists of 6
weeks of courses and participants attend for one or more weeks.

It offers a choice of twelve
seminars each week over a period of five weeks. Participants do not need any
formal qualifications to take part, just an interest in their chosen subject
and a desire to meet like-minded people.

You can also find details of
the various archaeology courses offered at Oxford Experience here...

After the discovery of a Viking burial
site in Scotland, Norse history and myths are the focus of a TV saga, epic
novels and a major British Museum exhibition

Longboats, funeral pyres, glinting helmets and drinking horns: the discovery
of a buried Viking boat in the west Highlands a few days ago has given an extra
fillip to a burgeoning cultural fascination with all things Norse.

A succession of Viking literary sagas, films and television series, pieces of
poetry and avant-garde art, not to mention preparations for a major British
Museum show, are now all on the slipway.

Friday, 21 October 2011

A BRONZE Viking ring-pin believed to be from Ireland has been
found buried with its owner in a major archaeological discovery in Scotland.

The 1,000-year-old remains of a Viking of high
status in a five-metre-long boat burial site has been described as one of the
most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain.

As well as the ring-pin, which probably held his cloak, archaeologists also
recovered other artefacts including an axe, a sword, a spear, what could be the
tip of a bronze drinking horn and Viking pottery.

Thursday, 20 October 2011

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL discovery in Dingwall could put the town on the
international map and bring major benefits to Ross and Cromarty, experts claimed
this week.

Geophysical surveys of the Cromartie car park in Dingwall town centre have
revealed that it most likely is the site of the long lost meeting place of the
Vikings who once ruled Ross.

The Highland Council-owned car park was closed to the public for two days
last month to see if archaeologists could produce the hard evidence to back up
beliefs that it was an important Viking assembly area around 1,000 years
ago.

THE discovery of the first fully intact Viking burial site
in the UK - on the Ardnamurchan peninsula - has rekindled public
interest in the Norse legacy on our shores.

The
16ft-long grave containing the remains of a “high-status Viking” who was
buried with an axe, a sword and a spear provides a valuable insight
into a period of our history which has fascinated Scots for centuries.

But
the facts about the Vikings in Scotland bear little resemblence to the
stereotypes of helmeted warriors pillaging the land at will. Here we
delve a little deeper to examine ten lesser-known traits of our Nordic
forebears.

The UK mainland’s first fully intact Viking boat burial
site has been discovered by archaeologists working in the Scottish
Highlands.

The 5m-long grave contained the remains of a high status Viking, who was
buried with an axe, a sword with a beautifully decorated hilt, a spear,
shield boss and bronze ring-pin.

The Viking had been buried in a ship, whose 200 or so metal rivets were also found by the team.

The 1,000-year-old find, on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula, was made
by the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project (ATP) which is a team led by
experts from the Universities of Manchester, Leicester, CFA Archaeology
Ltd and Archaeology Scotland

Funded this season by The University of Manchester, Newcastle University
and The Leverhulme Trust, the project brings together students and
academics at what may be one of Britain’s most significant Viking
sites.

A boat burial on the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, in Scotland, reveals just how noble the Vikings were.

Bad weather can have its comforts. “Bitter is the wind tonight, / It
tosses the sea’s white tresses,” wrote an Irish monk more than 1,000
years ago, “I do not fear the fierce warriors of Norway, / Who only
travel the quiet seas.”

A warrior of the sort he feared found his last resting place on the
peninsula of Ardnamurchan, north of Mull and south of Skye. His newly
discovered grave has astonished archaeologists, for it is the first
Viking boat burial found on mainland Britain. There he lies with axe,
sword and spear. He must have been a leader among Norsemen to gain this
noble grave.

Timber fragments and rivets of vessel, and deceased's sword and shield, unearthed undisturbed on Ardnamurchan peninsula

A Viking ship, which for 1,000 years has held the body of a
chieftain, with his shield on his chest and his sword and spear by his
side, has been excavated on a remote Scottish peninsula – the first
undisturbed Viking ship burial found on the British mainland.

The
timbers of the ship found on the Ardnamurchan peninsula – the mainland's
most westerly point – rotted into the soil centuries ago, like most of
the bones of the man whose coffin it became.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Oliver Harris of the University of Manchester
lifts the axe in a soil block from a 1,000-year-old boat burial of a Viking
chief. The boat burial is the only undisturbed one ever found on the British
mainland

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Art was a part of Andrew Saur’s life since he was a child – he still has a
sketch of a Viking ship he did as an eight-year-old. He grew up in on the shores
of Lake Superior in Two Harbors, Minn., where many Nordic immigrants settled
over a century ago. Saur discovered graphic design in college, and realized it
was a perfect fit for his interest in computers and fine art.

Today Saur and his wife Angel Sarkela-Saur have traveled to the Nordic
countries several times, engaging in the culture and seeing where their
ancestors came from (both have different combinations of Norwegian, Swedish and
Finnish heritage). The young couple is based in Duluth, Minn., and together they
create one-of-a-kind art with Nordic inspiration.

“From church to bazaars, the heritage is everywhere,” said Sarkela-Saur.

Friday, 7 October 2011

On Friday and Saturday 23 - 24 September 2011, the Department of Anglo-Saxon,
Norse and Celtic (University of Cambridge) hosted a two-day interdisciplinary
conference on conversion to Christianity in North West Europe. It featured
papers by an international group of historians, archaeologists and philologists,
who were given a unique forum in which to explore conversion comparatively by
focusing on different parts of Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and Iceland in the
early and central middle ages. The combination of places chosen for the
discussion reflects our wish to establish a wide comparative framework, covering
areas that are of significance to the study of conversion in both the pre-Viking
and the Viking era. The talks were recorded and audio podcasts will be posted
online soon.

About Me

I am a freelance archaeologist and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland specializing in the medieval period. I have worked as a field archaeologist for the Department of Environment (Northern Ireland) and the Museum of London. I have been involved in continuing education for many years and have taught for the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE) and the Universities of London, Essex, Ulster, and the London College of the University of Notre Dame, and I was the Archaeological Consultant for Southwark Cathedral. I am the author of and tutor for an OUDCE online course on the Vikings, and the Programme Director and Academic Director for the Oxford Experience Summer School.